July 2012

23

We may not have a human child (and we probably won’t for awhile, thanks for asking) but we do have a child of the dog-kind and that’s sort-of like having a kid.

Babies & Puppies may have comparable rolls.

Here are the similarities… feel free to argue with me (but you’re wrong):

Human babies eat everything off the floor. Dog babies do the same thing.

Human babies eat and poop all day. Dog babies also do that.

Human babies love to cuddle. Dog babies also love to cuddle.

Dog babies sleep in crates. Human babies sleep in cribs.

Dog babies are leash trained. Some human babies are also leash trained for places like Disneyland.

Dog babies have to be socialized. Human babies also need to be around other human babies.

I’d say the biggest difference is that one is a dog and one is a human.

OK, there are a lot of differences and I get it, dogs and babies should not be compared because, OMG they aren’t similar at all. BUT sometimes puppies carry some similarities to a baby’s behavior and patterns so…

Back to my point: J and I kind-of have a baby and we’re realizing that our dog-baby is good training for when we have a human-baby.

For example:

Boo hasn’t been the puppy that whines in the middle of the night. But sometimes she wakes up, or moves slightly and Rachel hears it immediately and checks on her to make sure everything is cool. Jason also wakes up to those things. LOL jk, Jason doesn’t hear any of that stuff. The moral of the story is: now we know that J is a much sounder sleeper than R, which will be good to know when we eventually decide to have a human-baby.

Sometimes puppies don’t do what they’re told and that’s frustrating. But you can only get so mad when you remember that they’re only 4 months old and this is probably the first time they’re experiencing this thing that you’re mad about. Jason is super patient. Rachel isn’t as patient, so Jason’s a good guy to have around (for the puppy’s sake… and our future children’s sake).

We have to remember to feed our dog and take her out to go to the bathroom and we also have to remember to spend time with her & find her a sitter if we’ll be gone overnight. These are all things we’ll have to do with a baby. We have to take our selfishness down a couple notches with a dog, and I’m only assuming like tons more with a baby. This is good practice.

We’re pretty good parents. We’ve only had Boo for 3 weeks and she’s already learned a bunch of tricks and she’s super smart and she’s awesome. And these things can only be attributed to how awesome we are. So you’re welcome Boo, and you’re also welcome future Kleist kids.

Pictured: Awesome Parents

The Kleist Gals

Jul

11

So 21 days after our wedding and just 10 days after we got home from our honeymoon Jason and I decided that we could probably think of no better time than July 1st to get a puppy. So that’s what we did…

Boo (aka Boo Boo Bear Kleist)

I (Rachel) have wanted a puppy forever. Every 2 weeks or so I’d ask Jason why he hadn’t gotten us a puppy yet and he’d say things like, “I live at the Walkers & this is not my house.” or ” You work at Parchments, we don’t have any money.” or “We’re not married so, who’s really going to take care of the dog?” or just simply, “No”. That last one was a popular one, it always hurt my feelings.

So when we moved into our town home I saw this as my opportunity to finally get the puppy I’d always wanted. Then, to my dismay, the landlord said “No pets”. This was hard for me, but the place we’re living is just too perfect to pass up. So, I lowered my head and kicked a little rock across the pavement and whimpered “Fine, I’ll just get a puppy never”. (Like a child)

Then the wedding happened and I kinda forgot about getting a puppy and focused more on all those wedding details and my trip to Disneyworld.

But then we came home. And every time I walked in the door and there wasn’t a puppy there to greet me or to vacuum clean the crumbs off the floor… I became a little more sad about it. So, I gathered up all my courage and e-mailed our landlord to ask if we could get a dog. I realize this is a risky move, he could have been like, “No, you’re dumb”. But, I’m awesome and he said, “Ok, I like you guys, get a dog”. BOOOM.

2 hours later I was on www.daybostonterrier.com finding my new pooch. J and I fell in love with “Bonnie” so, I called the breeder in Merced and asked him to please hold that gal for us so we could come meet her the next day.

It was truly love at first sight…

LOOK AT THAT FACE

She climbed into our laps and we knew it was over. The breeder let us know that she could never be a show dog because of her imperfections (coloring on her face is off, she has a dewclaw, her ears aren’t perked-up all the way up), but all of those things just made us love her more.

So we changed her name to Boo (from Monsters Inc.) and brought her to her new home at Castle Von Kleist. She was a perfect little sleeping baby in the beginning but, now she’s crazy. Seriously, she just takes off running and slams into walls and chairs and people but she obviously has a really high pain tolerance because she does it over and over and over again.

We even tried to make her swim the other day, to tire her out, she did good but then she slept like this for almost 2 hours… (success)

They made me go in water 🙁

Anyways, if you’d like to meet her come on over, she’s a sweetie and we want to make sure she meets lots of people and kids and other dogs. Here’s some more pics… and a video for your viewing pleasure.

05

June was probably one of the biggest months of our lives. As a recap we got married:

Marriage.

And then we went on a 10 day honeymoon. Here’s the story:

We woke up the day after the wedding in the same bed and that’s when we knew that being married was pretty cool. At around 1pm we left on a jet plane for Orlando with a quick (really quick) stop in Denver on the way. We touched down on Orlando soil and immediately started sweating – heat and humidity would be our friend for the next 9 days.

Orlando is weird but we eventually made it to the hotel around 2am with a grand feast in hand.

4 cheeseburgers, 20 piece chicken nug, 2 large fries and 2 cokes

McD’s is the ultimate fuel for Disneyworld, which is where we went the next morning.

magic

Disneyworld is huge. There’s like 6 miles of magic, which can be a little overwhelming. Our first stop was the Magic Kingdom. In an attempt to make it more magical (?) they surrounded the Magic Kingdom with water. Your only options to get to the gates are by ferry or monorail. I opted for the ferry ride which was super hot and sticky and was the wrong choice. Jason opted for the monorail which, in hindsight, would have been the right choice because he is usually right when it comes to things like that.

After 67 minutes (not exaggerating) and a small arm sunburn later, we were in the park. We bought 100+ proof sunscreen and then made our way to Tomorrowland.

duh.

After spending several days in the Magic Kingdom we’ve become experts and our expert advice is: Disneyland is probably better than the Magic Kingdom. So you’re welcome, for those of you who were thinking about spending lots of money on plane tickets and Dramamine and rental cars. (Everything is better in California)

Except for Epcot.

Epcot doesn’t exist in California and this is probably the only reason why I’d recommend Disneyworld to anyone (over Disneyland).

the golf ball

Epcot exists for 1 thing, and that 1 thing is food. You get a chance to travel the world’s cuisine without actually traveling the world. Seriously, we ate brats in Germany (and beer), fish & chips in the UK (and cider), curry udon in Japan, lamb and hummus in Morocco, and pastries in France. You could even do that all in one day if you’d like (not recommended).

We broke away from our 7 day excursion in the Happiest Place on Earth to visit Universal Studios (but mostly just Harry Potter Land).

Hogwarts

There are a few things about Universal that suck. First of all they don’t let you take bags onto any ride so, after waiting in line forever, and passing several people who work at Universal, we would get to the front of the line for a ride and be turned away because we had a bag. Second, the rides are always broken. Don’t get excited about a ride because you’ll most likely walk all the way over there only to find that it’s broken down. These things are dumb and that’s why Disney will always be better.

However, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter changed my life: I drank butter beer and came almost face to face with Ron Weasley.

omg, butterbeer.

The only other ride worth riding in Universal is Jurassic Park and maybe the Hulk roller coaster.

Jason and I did a lot of theme park things but we also ate dinner at Seasons 52 where we had one of the best low-cal dinners we’ve ever tasted.

Rainbow Trout and other delicious things

We also smoked.

J’s version of Disneyworld

After 9 days of Disney honeymooning we were ready to come back to the Bay where streets are regulated by policemen and it doesn’t rain every afternoon at 4pm.

We give Disneyworld a B+ and Orlando a C-. We give Disneyland an A and California an A+ so, that’s why Disneyland is better.